Charles
by ObviousSubtext
Summary: US Early season 1. Josh is worried when an old friend of Aidan's shows up at their door. Is he a killer or something else?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Being Human.

**Warning:** This is one of those "Send Sally to Danny's house" fics. Sorry.

**A/N:** I got tired of waiting for this to be a storyline on an episode, so I wrote it myself. Could be read as a one-shot, but I might continue it if I get the urge.

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><p>"Mr. Samson puked on me again." Josh said, as he walked up to Aidan in the hall of the hospital. He had just changed into his second set of scrubs for the day.<p>

Aidan just gave an "Mm" of acknowledgement as he flipped open a chart and balanced it in one hand.

Josh leaned forward to look at the chart and discovered the only thing inside were dividers and labels. He brought his eyes up to Aidan with a confused look. "Trying to look busy?" he asked.

"It's been a long day." Aidan said.

"It's 11 o'clock."

Aidan looked up, down the hall at nothing in particular as he thought for a second, shrugged, and said, "Day's half over."

Josh's eyebrows jerked up and he gave a short sigh. "Whatever, at least you don't smell like stomach acid and bacon."

Aidan leaned closer to Josh and took a sniff. "The bacon overpowers the acid."

"Oh, well, thanks, that's good to know." Josh was getting annoyed with the lack of eye contact. "The ladies love bacon!" he added louder than he meant to, catching the attention of a couple of nurses down the hall who just giggled. Josh sighed harder.

"You really need to stop wondering why you're single." Aidan said, still staring at the chart.

"Oh, now you're paying attention, just in time to insult me."

"Josh." Aidan snapped the chart shut and stood up straight, apparently realizing that Josh wasn't going to go away. "I had a visitor."

"A visitor." Josh repeated, waiting for him to continue. When he didn't, he encouraged him by guessing, "Rebecca?"

"No."

"Who, Bishop?"

"No, it was an old friend."

"I thought Bishop was an old friend."

"This one wasn't that old."

"So what, only 400 years instead of five?"

"Josh."

"If you want me to be serious, I need longer sentences to work with." He gestured as he spoke.

"Never mind, Josh, I'll just deal him myself."

"Deal with him? Is he someone that needs to be dealt with?"

Aidan shrugged.

"Okay, let me be more specific: Did he threaten to murder you or 'your dog', as they lovingly call me."

A doctor down the hall called to Aidan, who handed the chart to Josh. "We'll talk at home."

Josh tried a few times throughout the rest of the day to get him to talk. Mostly out of pure worry that there was yet another vampire in town who wanted him dead. Aidan skipped his lunch, claiming on the ride home that he got too busy, but Josh suspected he was avoiding him.

Sally greeted them at the door at home, and Josh immediately asked her to give them a moment alone.

"You guys just got here, I've been alone all day." she whined. She sat down on the stairs and they stood at either side of her.

"Come on, Josh, let's sit down and catch up with each other." Aidan said just to get a reaction.

Josh just stared at him as Aidan smiled.

"What did you do today, Sally?" Aidan asked.

"I sat in the kitchen for 6 hours trying to move an egg." she said, staring ahead with an unsatisfied look.

"Why did you start with an egg?" Josh couldn't help asking.

"Because I got over-excited with the pencil and broke a glass."

Aidan hid a smile of amusement.

"Anyway," Josh insisted. "Aidan and I need to have a solid-people discussion, so if you could just mist out for an hour or so, that'd be awesome."

"Josh." Aidan resisted laughing.

With a huge sigh, Sally disappeared.

"You really ticked her off now." Aidan took his jacket off and sat down on the couch.

Josh pulled his messenger bag over his head and dropped it by the stairs. "Is there a new vamp in town?" he asked. He sat down sideways next to Aidan, watching him, and realizing Aidan just wasn't feeling the eye contact today.

"I hate it when you say 'vamp'."

"I hate it when you avoid the subject."

"He doesn't even know about you, Josh, calm down."

"So he's an old friend." Josh began, deciding to try a different route. "You two used to, what, hunt together?"

"No, he was off human blood when we met."

"Okay…" Josh considered what to say next. He was used to having to work to get information from Aidan He propped his elbow up on the back of the couch and rested his head on his hand. "Is he working with Bishop?"

"No, he never owed anything to Bishop."

"So he just came around to check in with you?" Josh asked half-jokingly.

Aidan grinned. "He missed me."

There was a knock at the door and Josh got up to answer it. "Can I help you?" Josh asked the man standing on their stoop.

"I'm looking for Aidan."

Aidan jumped up when he heard the voice, and came to the door.

Josh watched Aidan smile at the other man, who returned it and gestured at the floor. "Can I come in?"

Josh's shoulders sank with the realization. He swallowed. "Oh crap."

"Josh." Aidan elbowed him in the side.

The man outside tilted his head up and took a deep breath through his nose. "Ah, he's a wolf. He knows, then?"

"Yeah, Josh is cool."

Josh didn't feel cool. Josh never felt cool, actually. He was still suspicious of the stranger, but the fact that he had called him a wolf instead of 'pup' gave him some bonus points.

"You can come in, Charles." Aidan said, stepping out of the way.

But before Charles took a step inside, he reached a hand out to Josh. "Nice to meet you."

Josh shook it, his manners taking over despite how hesitant he was to trust a vampire.

Aidan walked into the living room and Charles followed. Josh closed the door and stepped into the next room too.

"Hey, Josh, could you give us a few minutes? " Aidan asked, jerking his head toward the stairs.

Josh wanted to say no, that he wanted an explanation and to be assured that the vampire who now had access to his house wasn't going to eat him in the middle of the night. Or ever. But instead, he just gave a smile and a nod and headed upstairs. He walked to his bedroom door and opened and shut it from the hall.

"Does he know… everything?" he heard Charlie ask.

"He thinks you're going to kill him." Aidan said.

Charlie laughed.

"You still sober?"

"I broke a few years back, ate a fisherman in Alaska."

Silence. Josh had to see what was going on. He crouched down and leaned over to look through the railing until he could see them on the couch. Charlie had his arm on the back of it, behind Aidan, and was sitting sideways, just like Josh had been moments ago. The first thought in Josh's mind was to find something he could stake him with just in case he tried to bite Aidan. He started to move to start looking, but the thought 'Can a vampire drink another vampire?' stopped him and he became confused and distracted. Was Charles going to drink Aidan? Could he even do that? Would it kill Aidan? Before he could make a decision, Josh heard Charles speak again.

"But I'm better now." His face got closer to Aidan's, his nose ran along Aidan's jaw before his mouth settled on his neck. Josh's eyes were wide with panic for a second before he realized Charles had gone in for a kiss instead of a bite.

Josh got even more confused when Aidan's head leaned over to let Charles' mouth wander. More confused still when Aidan turned his head and kissed Charles on the mouth.

"Is Josh your roommate or a gentleman caller?"

Aidan smiled. "Trust me, he's just my roommate."

"Good." Charles said, resting a hand on Aidan's shoulder and slowly pushing him over. "Then you're all mine. We can pick up right where we left off."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **I'm trying to stay as true to the canon as I can, but I'm playing around with it a little. Since this is set in early season 1, I'm probably going to end up changing a lot of the information that we're shown about Aidan later in the series. Forgive me.

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><p>Josh didn't know why he was still watching. All he could see was Charles' butt and shoulders bobbing into view above the back of the couch every few seconds. He was just glad he wasn't naked. With every moan he heard, Josh's face changed a little more into a mixture of surprise and confusion. He stood up and stepped closer to his bedroom, determined to not see or hear any more, when he heard Aidan protesting.<p>

"What's wrong?" Charles asked.

"We can't do this here. I don't bring people home." Aidan said.

"Then let's go somewhere."

"I should talk to Josh first."

"I thought you said Josh was just your roommate."

"He's my best friend, I shouldn't keep secrets from him."

Rustling.

"Just how 'cool' is he?" Charles asked.

Josh understood that question and unnecessarily strained to hear Aidan's answer.

"He'll be fine with it as long I tell him, as long as he doesn't have to find out through somebody else."

Josh straightened his shoulders with a little pride, enjoying the fact that Aidan trusted their friendship.

"And as long as you never call him a dog or make jokes about how awful his blood smells." Aidan added during more rustling.

Josh smiled at how well his friend knew him.

Charles sighed. "I've missed you."

"Come see me at work tomorrow, we'll pretend to have lunch together."

Charles laughed quietly. "It's a date."

Silence. Josh crouched down again to see Charles pulling away from a kiss and walking to the front door. Aidan was about to turn to the stairs and Josh ducked out of view.

"Josh?" Aidan called after the door had closed.

Josh grabbed his bedroom doorknob and opened it. He was determined that their rickety old house wasn't going to give him away. "Yeah?" he called back.

"He's gone."

He closed the door and went downstairs, mentally preparing himself along the way. He couldn't let Aidan know he'd been watching, and had to dive back into the conversation with the same annoyance that he'd left it. "You want to tell me now, what's going on?" he asked at the bottom of the stairs, trying to sound angry and putting his hands on his hips.

Aidan didn't look at him, just gestured to the couch and sat down.

Josh tried to think of something else to say to make it more convincing, but instead he just walked to the couch and took a seat next to Aidan, looking sideways at him.

Aidan shifted to look at Josh, who caught his eye and unknowingly flashed a look of uncertainty. Aidan sighed. "You were listening."

"What?" Josh stood up and his hands went right back to his hips again. "That is absurd! I was in my room, I would never spy on you!"

Aidan laughed, shaking his head.

Josh cleared his throat and let his arms fall loose. "I might've heard everything, but I didn't see…" he waved a hand over the couch. "everything."

"You saw enough." Aidan said knowingly.

Josh sat back down and responded calmly, his voice exposing his genuine confusion. "Just enough to ask who the hell is Charles?"

"He's an ex."

"An ex… vampire?"

"Ex-boyfriend."

"Ex boyfriend." Josh repeated, nodding and staring at the wall. He had assumed as much, but he needed to hear it from Aidan. He didn't want to go making an even bigger idiot of himself than usual.

Aidan watched Josh's face for his reaction, but all he saw was a large, thoughtful, considering frown.

"So you're…" Josh trailed off, leaning his head in Aidan's direction, hoping he'd finish the sentence.

"It's not that simple, Josh."

Josh looked at him "Then make me understand."

Aidan relaxed back and looked away. "I was born in a time when that wasn't heard of."

Josh nodded to let him know he understood.

"I had the luxury of watching the world change. And as it did, it let me...explore."

Josh just nodded again. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but they all felt so rude and ignorant. He didn't care about understanding whatever sexuality, if any, Aidan identified with, he decided Charles himself was the bigger issue to figure out, so he went with, "How did you two meet? When?"

"The 30s." Aidan let himself daydream of that night as he told its story to Josh, leaving in more details than he probably should've.

It was the end of Prohibition, and Aidan had created the illusion that he'd had a few too many. It wasn't hard since everyone else in the bar was too drunk to notice. He'd lost Bishop in the crowd early in the night and saw him leaving a few hours afterward with a woman. He'd paused in the doorway, found Aidan's eye, and gave him a nod. He wasn't coming back. Aidan had started the night with the same intentions, but he'd honestly given up a while ago. He'd given up the act, turned on his stool to face the bar again and put a protective arm around the half-empty glass of beer he'd been faking it with for most of the night.

He scanned the room again, like he'd been doing for the past several hours, trying to find a lady that looked worth draining, but none caught his attention the way Charles did. He was sitting in a booth, backed into the corner by the four girls that sat at either side of him. They all had dark liquor in their hands, sloshing it around with obnoxious laughter that Charles matched as he touched their shoulders and hands casually enough to appear tipsy but not completely smashed, not that they could tell the difference.

He stood out to Aidan, who couldn't help staring for some reason. Without having to search, Charles looked into Aidan's eyes and smiled, almost knowingly, almost like he knew he was being watched.

As soon as Aidan realized he'd been discovered, he turned his head back around and found an interesting glass hanging from a rack near the ceiling to focus on for the next several minutes. He made the excuse in his head that the man had looked far too sober for the occasion and it was an odd sight, so no wonder Aidan was staring. He told himself that so many times that he'd started nodding in agreement. And so what if he was staring? There was no harm in that.

"The humans are so fun when they're drunk, aren't they?"

Aidan tried to look over casually at the person who'd just come to stand next to him. "Excuse me?"

Charles sat down on the next stool. He looked around as he spoke quietly. "I know what you are."

"Do you?" Aidan picked up his beer and took a drink, suppressing the gag in the back of his throat and not actually swallowing.

Charles rested his head on his hand and leaned on the bar, watching Aidan, who gave him a look of defiance. It was semi-convincing until he retched and nearly sprayed beer everywhere.

"We both know you want to spit it out." Charles said lazily.

Aidan brought his glass to his mouth and all but puked the alcohol back into it. "How did you know?" he gasped, his eyes watering at the awful taste.

"Because beer was disgusting even before I turned."

"You know what I mean." Aidan picked up a bar napkin and wiped his mouth.

"I've been watching you all night. Your friend left early, you've been trying to make up your mind about which lush to take home first, but you haven't found anything satisfying."

Aidan's eyebrows twitched. "I'm impressed."

"Don't be, I only know because I've been so bored all night, I have nothing better to do than stare at you. Not I've minded."

Aidan face turned a little confused. Was he being flirted with?

"I'm just here for the entertainment anyway, I'm off humans-"

"Off humans?" Aidan turned to him. "How?"

"I have connections at a hospital in town, they give me what I need. It's not as good as the live stuff, but it's better than this." He gestured around. "All this is tainted."

Aidan had considered that, he knew the blood wouldn't be pure in a bar, but they were easier to hunt when they were drunk and he was willing to deal with the taste because of it.

"It's nice, though." Charles continued. "Never having buyer's remorse."

Aidan hadn't considered that. Maybe it was something to look into.

Charles turned on his stool and leaned back on his elbows against the bar. "There's not many men here."

Aidan turned around too to get the same view. He hadn't noticed but now that it was brought to his attention, he was one of maybe 20 men scattered throughout the entire bar. He made a thoughtful face as a reaction. "Odd." he said.

"Not exactly a dream." Charles commented.

That got Aidan thinking. There were easily four women to every man: Great odds. But it didn't seem like much of a dream to him either, though it had ten minutes ago. Before he'd seen Charles. At the moment, it seemed like he'd never think about anyone else.

"I got plenty of blood back at my place, what do you say we hit the road?" Charles proposed.

Aidan nodded and followed Charles through the crowd, leaving his drink where it sat without any thought of paying. What would Bishop think if he found out Aidan was trusting a vampire he'd just met minutes ago? For all Aidan knew, Charles could've been human, a hunter who tricked vampires to their death by pretending to be one of them. That was why Bishop had made rules, and as far as he was concerned, Aidan, his right-hand man, was too smart to break any of them. All of this was running through Aidan's head as he left with a man whose name he didn't even know. He decided that Bishop didn't know him as well as he thought he did.


	3. Chapter 3

Charles kept a small house, and it was filled with the erotic smell of blood that attacked Aidan's senses the moment he stepped inside. Charles, obviously used to it, just pulled the key out of the door and waited for Aidan to pass him so he could close it.

Aidan gave a breathy sigh and Charles chuckled and asked, "Nice, isn't it?"

Aidan's eyes were dark and his fangs already bared when turned to face Charles. "Where is it?"

Charles just smiled and shoved the door closed.

If Aidan had been more aware, he would've been worried, he would've assumed that Charles was stalling for a band of hunters to surround Aidan. But he was weak, and distracted, and hungry. So he trusted Charles when he walked through another door and came back holding a jar of blood.

Aidan cringed just a little and Charles noticed.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing." The truth was that drinking someone was sensual and visceral, and drinking it out of a jar made him feel like an addict in need of a fix. He figured that's nearly what he was anyway so why not accept it? "I appreciate it." He reached out for the jar but Charles pulled it out of reach.

"Tell me." he insisted calmly. "Is there a type you prefer more than-" He lifted it and read the label. "-O negative?"

Aidan took a couple deep breaths, trying to resist from attacking Charles to get the jar from him. He couldn't handle the smell without the taste, it was just a rude tease that angered him.

Without putting the precious jar down, Charles took his suit jacket off and tossed it by the collar onto the sofa. "Tell me…" he stopped, waiting for a name as he unbuttoned one of his cuffs.

"Aidan."

"Aidan." Charles smiled, rolling his sleeve up to the elbow and pouring a small stream of blood down his forearm. He held his arm evenly so it wouldn't slide too far, until he took a step closer to Aidan and raised it near his face. "What is your type?"

They didn't break eye contact while Aidan finally gave in and slowly licked the blood from Charles' arm, until he jerked away and nearly spit on the floor.

"It's a little different, I know." Charles smiled.

Aidan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand while Charles sat the jar down on the end table, unbuttoned his shirt and dropped it off his shoulders, then pulled off his undershirt. "I can make it taste better." he said.

Any excuses Aidan had given himself in the bar for staring were confirmed as lies by the way he was staring now. He just plain liked the view, and there was too much going on in the moment for him to analyze what that meant.

Charles poured some blood into his hand before replacing the jar on the table, and smeared it all over his chest.

Aidan was breathing heavy now, and lunged for Charles, grabbing his sides and pulling him closer. His mouth ran wild, sucking and nipping at the blood stained skin, barely getting the taste against the cold, cologne-coated body. Aidan pulled away and shoved him onto the couch, picked up the jar and poured nearly all of it out over Charles. He dropped it on the floor and climbed onto the couch.

Aidan licked the torso under him, running his hands in the blood and letting them rest around Charles' neck. He somehow, and for some reason, made his way to Charles' mouth and before he knew what he was doing, they were kissing, the coppery taste biting at both their tongues. His knee was between Charles' legs, and grinding against him while he convulsing and moaned. Aidan suddenly realized what was happening and pushed himself up, pulling his face off Charles', who just laughed and asked, "What?"

"I didn't… mean to do that."

Charles was still smiling. Blood had been forced into the tiny cracks and grooves of his lips and was smeared all over his face. "So licking is acceptable, but kissing is off limits?"

Aidan stood up and looked down at his now stained suit. He rolled his eyes at himself and took off his jacket and began to unbutton his vest.

"Are you going to beat me up now?" Charles asked, sounding as if he was challenging Aidan. "Tell me you're 'not that way'?"

"I'm not saying…" Aidan let out a nasally sigh and looked down Charles' body. "I don't even know your name."

"Charles. I'm called Charles."

Josh was sitting completely still out of discomfort, with his eyes locked on Aidan's. He swallowed.

Aidan smiled. "You wanted to know."

"I didn't want to know everything!" He stood up and ran a hand through his hair. "I mean- It's- You're- Okay. It's fine." He sat back down. He was talking more to himself than to Aidan, whose shoulders shook in silent laughter.

"I'm not saying it's gross, I'm saying…" He thought for a moment but Aidan spoke before he could continue.

"I get it." Aidan nodded.

"I have no problems with this." he said, looking Aidan in the eye again. "Assuming that there is a this to not have any problems with."

Aidan laughed again. Josh always had to make things more complicated than they were. He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. He seems serious enough, he's not the type to just walk out."

"Well, I support you…"

Aidan turned away and rolled his eyes.

"I'll beat him up if he cheats on you."

Aidan gave him a look that said they both knew how that would end.

"I'll pay someone to beat him up."

They laughed.

"Maybe we can have him over for pretend dinner and a movie." Josh smiled too enthusiastically.

"Pretend dinner?" Sally repeated.

They both jumped and turned to look at her standing behind the couch.

"Who's coming over for pretend dinner?"

Aidan just smiled and said, "Charles."


End file.
